Extraordinary Merry Christmas
by berrywarbler
Summary: Blaine only wants one thing for Christmas.


"I need to speak to you," Rachel said, coming up to Blaine's locker without even a quick 'hello'.

"What's up Rachel?" he asked, closing the door quickly as his hand slipped easily around her shoulders, almost automatically. After spending so much time as Tony and Maria, the two had become comfortable around each other, Rachel becoming his only real ally in the school.

"I need you to help me write a song," she said quickly, and when he opened his mouth to speak, she shushed him. "I need the lead in whatever Artie ends up deciding on doing-"

"I'm sure you'll get it regardless," Blaine offered automatically, before shutting up to her glare.

"-and I need to write something more upbeat, positive. And I figured that you would probably be the best person to help me with that," she smiled, looking up at him with those giant brown eyes he could never find himself saying 'no' too, even if he thought it was a crazy idea.

"How about after school?" he found himself saying, and her grin was contagious as she leaned up and kissed his cheek, whispering a quick 'thank you!' before darting off across the school to her own class, leaving Blaine in a sort of daze he often found himself in around her.

* * *

><p>"'Hold me tight and kiss me slow?'" Rachel asked, reading over his words he had scribbled down throughout the day. He blushed a little, realizing how it sounded, realizing not for the first time that he hadn't actually been thinking about Kurt as the words came to him, but she didn't say anything more as she combined it with some of her own words, a tune coming to her from out of nowhere.<p>

They had been working for nearly three hours now, endless rough drafts thrown about on her carpet as they lay together on her bed, Rachel occasionally reaching over to take his notebook and see if there was anything she deemed usable in it before going back to her own, scratching out lyrics and changing around words. He was more than impressed with her ability to come up with a song out of thin air, the most he could do was write up new words to tunes he already knew. But here she was, singing along already to a song that wasn't even completed.

"I'm not the one mentioning running around a Christmas tree secretly," he finally teased, knocking shoulders with her as she rolled her eyes, poising her eraser to get rid of the offending lines. "No-I, I mean I like it, I was just joking," he promised, and when she looked at him-their faces only inches apart-he was sure she could feel the slight hitch in his breath as he tried to focus on the task at hand.

"Right," she nodded, her eyes dropping a little and he realized she was staring at his lips as she subconsciously licked her own, the thought causing a flush throughout his body before she turned her attention back to the notebook in front of her. "Well, I think I may have a finished project, and I think I've even managed to figure out what you're going to sing and what I'll sing."

"I'm singing it with you?" he asked, leaning on his arm as she sat up, distancing them a bit, something he hated to admit was probably necessary.

"Of course," she answered, as if it had been painfully obvious, though Blaine supposed it had been. "I wasn't going to demand you help me write a song and then sing it all on my own."

"Well, Rachel Berry _does _like to be the star," he joked, and she let out a small laugh before handing him the notebook.

"Just, kind of, read it over? And tell me what you think. If you like it, I'll start teaching you how it goes." Blaine chuckled but read the song over, letting her know that he loved it as soon as he was done, and before he knew it she was dragging him off the bed and throwing him into an impromptu rehearsal.

He couldn't have imagined a better afternoon.

* * *

><p>"We want to sing you a song," Rachel announced as she sat Finn and Kurt down on their couch, the brothers looking at each other with raised eyebrows.<p>

"You're going to sing us a song?" Kurt asked, his blue eyes piercing Blaine's as he looked past Rachel, clearly asking about the _you're _of the matter.

"Babe, you know I loved you as Maria, but aren't we done with the whole West Side Story thing?" Finn asked, and Blaine had to fight back an eye roll-as if Rachel could ever be done wanting to play Maria, as if it would stop her from singing a song from West Side Story if she put her mind to it.

"It's not-Blaine and I wrote an original Christmas song, and we wanted to perform it for you guys before we presented it to the rest of the club," she said, her tone haughty as it tended to be around Finn. Blaine just stood by while he waited for Rachel's cue, the music she had somehow conjured up on the computer playing as the song started.

He could see, out of the corner of his eye, that Finn and Kurt were bouncing along, adding their own little chorus part as Rachel and Blaine twirled around one another, their faces focused on each other's, but he didn't care about them. He could swear he saw a gleam in her eye when they sang about wanting each other, the possibility that maybe they were singing the obvious while lacing it behind a friendship startling and sudden as it hit him, at the same moment it seemed to hit her.

Finn and Kurt clapped when they were done, and it took Rachel another moment to seem to collect herself before she wretched her eyes away from Blaine and to her boyfriend, her smile a little more forced than it had been a few moments ago. "Do you think they'll like it?" she asked hopefully, and he noted how her body was tense, like she was worried, though Blaine didn't think it was over the song.

"I think they'll love it," Finn said, getting up and wrapping Rachel into his arms, kissing her deeply regardless of Blaine's uncomfortable stance and Kurt's high pitched laugh.

"Okay! Time to separate now," Kurt announced loudly, grabbing Blaine's hand and pulling him away towards his room, Blaine trailing behind with one last glance at where Rachel was now watching him, clearly not focused on her own boyfriend.

* * *

><p><em>You're flirting<em>, he realized halfway through their performance in front of the group, grinning at her in a way he knew he didn't grin at Kurt. _You're flirting, and she's flirting back, and this is really not good Anderson_, he reprimanded, but then she was touching him, leaning against him, and all thoughts about how it was wrong slipped through his mind.

It was natural that they play around while singing, they were both performers who aimed to please their audience, and he couldn't take his eyes off her. He realized maybe he should sing more in the direction of their friends, their boyfriends, _his boyfriend_, but he would never get used to how she threw her whole self into singing, performing. He would never get used to the fact that the most talented person he would ever know, the one destined for absolutely anything she wanted in life, wanted to sing with _him_.

His hands rested naturally on her back as they came to an end, the room cheering as he remembered to look at them, pay attention to _them_, not to how her hand found its own way to his chest and his hand kept her closer to him. It was like they were magnetic, unable to stay apart for more than a few minutes, and then she was talking, and he had to focus on her words, stumbling out a repletion as she walked back to her seat, forced to go to his own, trying to clear his mind of whatever spell she seemed to have over him.

* * *

><p>Neither spoke of the incident, of the weird vibe that seemed to grow stronger the more time they spent together. And they were spending an absurd amount of time together, always seeming to find a way to touch or be closer than was absolutely necessary.<p>

He knew he shouldn't act on it, the confusing feeling that was overwhelming to the point where he was probably neglecting Kurt for the sake of being around Rachel and making her happy. He knew he should care that Kurt was probably upset with the amount of time he spent around Rachel, but he waved it off with a quick 'She's fighting with Finn again,' leaving Kurt to sigh heavily before he placed a small kiss on his cheek.

He wasn't too surprised when he showed up at the Hudson-Hummel house one evening to find Rachel stringing lights on their Christmas tree, Finn placing the star on the top while she went on about how excited she was for the next evening, for their recording of the Christmas special. Kurt was rolling his eyes at her as he put up an ornament, and he almost had to remind himself to wrap his arms around Kurt, not Rachel, when he greeted them all.

"I made cookies," Kurt said after a quick kiss, and Finn's interest quickly peaked.

"Cookies?"

"Gingerbread cookies," Kurt nodded, turning to face his brother as Rachel continued her focus on the tree, "but I haven't frosted them yet."

"I'll help!" Finn yelled, nearly crashing into the kitchen before anyone could even argue. Blaine let out a low laugh, declining Kurt's question on if he would join them, opting instead to help Rachel with the lights.

They heard a loud crash from the other room, Finn's louder apology over Kurt's yelling, and the two laughed, Blaine's hands brushing over Rachel's as he took the edge of the light strand from her to ring it around the tree a little higher. She flushed pink, but didn't say anything as she busied herself in another box, Blaine grinning as he noticed the mistletoe overhead.

"Rachel," he said, his voice quiet as he reached a hand out to touch her arm, the small action causing her to turn quickly, her eyes wide before they followed his vision above her head, her skin turning bright red.

"Blaine, we-" She started to argue, but he simply put a finger to his lips, effectively shushing her as he moved a little closer.

"Merry Christmas," he said quietly, leaning over and kissing her quickly, unlike their kisses as Tony and Maria, or their drunken mishap, or even the one in the Lima Bean. It was soft, and it was sensual, and Blaine could tell they both wanted nothing more than to ease into the kiss and let it last for the rest of the evening, but they broke apart after only a moment, her bottom lip immediately being sucked into her mouth as she chewed it nervously.

"Merry Christmas," she whispered back, stepping away from his grasp quickly as Kurt and Finn's voices grew louder in their direction.

* * *

><p>He shouldn't have been surprised at Rachel's ability to ignore what had transpired between them, because she was nothing if not a good actress, something she was proving in spades. They spent the entire day in school and preparing for the show that night without discussing the kiss, what it might have meant, what Blaine wanted it to mean.<p>

How Blaine wanted it to mean that Rachel could have the same confusing feelings for him that he had for her.

Still, they laughed and acted and did their job just as they were told to, Artie congratulating them once more on a phenomenal performance once they were headed towards the homeless shelter to help out. Blaine kept the _if you only knew _in his brain, refusing to acknowledge it until she did the same.

But then they were helping out, Blaine's eyes drawn to her even more as she chatted with the little kids in the group, singing to them as they opened the presents they had brought for them. He was overcome with the strongest feeling of home, and family, and future that he had never felt before, the feeling scaring him a little as he looked at where Kurt was seated with Finn and Puck, talking to a couple older guys about football presumably. Kurt smiled in his direction, and Blaine tried to return the sentiment, but then Rachel's hand reached out for him, a quiet "Sing with me for them?" falling out of her mouth, and he quickly joined her and the two little girls that seemed to be hanging on to her every word.

He supposed, later that night when they snuck away from the rest of the group, he should have felt more guilty. He should have felt more upset that he was cheating on Kurt, but he knew, even before Rachel leaned up on her toes to reach his mouth with her own, before their hands were tangled in each other's hair and wrapped around each other's bodies, that Kurt wasn't what he wanted anymore.

If he had one Christmas wish, he realized, it was for Rachel to be his own.


End file.
